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36 Deadly Assassins
The 36 Deadly Assassins "A wuxia story is only as good as it's gimmicky martial arts villains." Heroes need villains, and steampunk wuxia heroes need steampunk wuxia villains. Combat is substantially more exciting and engaging when the villains have their own unique personalities, styles, and abilities; fighting a gang of evil pharmacists who wield various poisons is a much more exciting fighting a gang of identical pistol-wielding mooks. To make this easier, we have including a list of 36 pre-packaged Colorful Martial Arts Bad Guys, to be used and modified as nescessary. The characters below are meant to be roughly equivalent in strength to a set of PCs, though with less versatility and no access to Fortune points. The following is a leaderboard of the top thirt-six known killers in China, as maintained by the Minstry of Justice's Department of Secret Police. It lists not only their No. 6 "Storm Cannon" Lei Fong is a nefarious criminal schemer and inventor. He is merciless and charismatic, demanding absolute loyalty from his siblings. He is a man of his early thirties with a medium length beard. He dresses in the attire of a mechanic; leather smock, work boots, goggles and gloves. In Combat, Lei Fong wields a weapon of his own design, a fantastically complicated machine that magnetically propels electrically charged spinning blades at high speed. By adjusting the settings, the same machine can be modified to hurl bolts of pure electricity as a portable lightning cannon. Weaponry: Talents: Dance of the Thunder God! Forging the Legendary Cannon! Ingenious Deadly Machines! No. 5: "Iron Mountain" Iron Mountain is a cheerful young girl piloting an absolutely massive suit of power armor. Supposedly she built the suit herself in her garage, and turned to crime to pay off the cost of building it. Her armor is outfitted with motorskates and a terrifying array of rockets, making her a one-woman tank. Despite her lack of experience, her equipment makes her one of the most fearsome assassins in the underworld. Skills: Armaments: Talents: Hail of a Thousand Mortars! Chariot Takes the Field! Forging the Legendary Chariot! No. 4: "The Living Asura" Rumor has it that he was once a Shaman in the far steppes of Mongolia, who allowed an evil spirit to enter his body in exchange for the power it could grant. He claims to be possessed by an Asura, a demon of war and anger that demands sacrifices in blood. In battle, he lets the Asura assume control, given him super human combat abilities. Appearance: The Living Asura is a mountain of a man, over six feet tall with a coarse beard and nest of matted dreadlocks for hair. The impression he leaves is exactly halfway between “religious ascetic” and “serial killer.” In Combat: ''Living Asura delights in killing and is one of the most feared killers in the ''jianghu. ''In battle, he lets the spirit take him and flies into a battle rage, seemingly invincible. Black Whirlwind enhances his attack, damage, and Fortitude by 1 point; Walk with the Ancestors gives him a +4 bonus to any skill, usually either melee or Fortitude. He eschews the fancy weaponry of most assassins, wielding an old pair of axes, stained brown with rust and blood. Skills: Armaments: Talents: Walk with the Ancestors! Black Whirlwind! Whirlwind of a Thousand Cuts! No. 3: "The Night Surgeon" Doctor Fang is an automaton, but unlike the others, he never went rogue; rather, he was a brilliant scientist who converted himself into a free-willed automaton when he was diagnosed with a terminal heart disease. The sinister experiments he conducts are legends in the jianghu. Now considering himself above mere mortals, he does not hesitate to kill those who stand in his way. Appearance: His mechanical form is custom built with a gaunt and skeletal frame, designed to instill fear and allow him to fine motor control. The face is skull-like, and his voice is rasping and otherworldly. In Combat:The Night Surgeon's mechanical body is a tiny factory for poisons, which he can excrete in a variety of ways. His hands have been outfitted with a retractable set of long steel claws, coated in a lethal toxin. Built into his arms are a set of fully automatic needleguns, which fire swarms of tiny poison injection needles at a machine gun rate. His steam vents are mixed with a variety of deadly poison gases that he can deploy in a cloud surrounding him, blinding and poisoning foes. He is a master poisoner, and usually combines two effects with each poison – usually a neurotoxin with either a blinding agent, a necrotoxin, or a fear-inducing hallucinogen. Skills Armaments Talents: Boxing Style (Dragon Claw) Prepared Pharmacist Indefatigable Iron Champion Master of the Deadly Venoms. No. 2: "The Executioner" One of the most feared legends within the ''jianghu, ''They say The Executioner was originally built to hunt down other rogue automatons, and thus given more free will and less rigorous mental conditioning than his brethren. Some say that this is what led to his madness; others say it was an encounter with The Devil Machine that broke him. Driven mad by his own lost humanity, the only pleasure he now finds is in killing. Appearance: The executioner is a massive war-frame Automaton, nearly seven feet tall and over four feet wide, and keeps himself covered with a large hooded cloak. He carries a a massive sword, two large to be concealed or sheathed. In Combat: The Executioner wields a massive thermal two-handed saber. The blade is six feet long, weighs over fifty pounds, and is made of a nearly indestructible steel-tungsten alloy. A thermocoil superheats the blade til it reaches nearly five thousand degrees, capable of slicing through metal like wet clay. It is said that The Executioner has cut fully armored foes in half with a single swing of his deadly blade. As a backup, his body contains a built-in rocket launcher, capable of firing high temperature thermite rockets, capable of easily burning holes in thick sheet metal. Like most combat automaton, The Executioner has a set of motorized wheels built into his feet, letting him keep pace with fleeing vehicles. Talents: Forging the Legendary Sword Forging the Legendary Armor Bull Charges the Gate Equipment: Thermal Horse-Cutting Saber, Armor-Piercing Rockets, Power Armor (built in), motorskates (built in). 'No. 1: "The Devil Machine" The Devil Machine is not merely a killer. It is a living nightmare. Legend has it that The Devil Machine was born in one of the secret prisons of the Ming Empire; there, unfortunate souls were tortured, killed, transformed into abominable automaton soldiers. They say that all the vengeful ghosts of that place gathered in one of the deactivated automaton bodies, giving it life, giving them a tool to escape their prison. The newly born Devil Machine slaughtered everyone in the prison, painting it's body red with their blood. So the legend goes. Appearance: ''The Devil Machine appears as a war-frame Automaton, modified over the years. It's body protrudes with jagged spikes, and it's exterior is the dull red of blood and rust. It does not speak directly, but is said to whisper into the minds of it's victims. Few know what the Machine desires, or what it is like inside the swirling vortex of tortured souls that is it's psyche. ''In Combat: ''The Devil machine has pair of chainsaw-like blades protruding from it's forearms, which it uses to rend the flesh from it's victims. It's shoulders have been installed with shrapnel cannons, fully automatic gatling guns that fires sprays of flachette. Most horrifying, though, are the Machine's spiritual powers. Via Walk With the Ancestors, it can temporarily boost it's Melee, Reflex, Fortitude, or Sharpshooting by four points. It can call upon the many souls trapped within it to possess others. Unlike other Shamans, it does not enter a trance state when possessing a victim; The Devil Machine is capable of still moving and acting while using Skin Walker. ''Equipment: Chainsaw Blades: ''The Devil Machine has a pair of whirling mechanical chainsaw-like blades extending from each arm. They deal Wounding damage, unless the target is wearing armor. ''Shrapnel Cannons: ''These are set of gatling guns mounted into the Devil Machine's shoulders, which fire sprays of razor sharp flachette. They deal wounding damage, and are capable of making Area Attacks. ''Armor: ''The Devil Machine's armor is covered in jagged spikes and blades, dealing a light wound to any unarmored opponents who makes direct physical contact (such as via an unarmed attack). ''Talents: '''Walk with the Ancestors! The shaman can summon a benign spirit to take control of his body and do what he can not. Though ones own ancestors are the most common beneficiaries, any manner of spirit may be called. By spending a point of Breath, the shaman may add his Shamanism skill ranks to one skill he possesses for the duration of one scene. During this time, he shares control of his body with the other spirit, and may behave erratically. Possession! You can forcibly possess the body of someone else. Spend a point of Breath, and select a target whom your spirit can see. Make a Shamanism check, opposed by your target's Fortitude, Awareness, or Empathy. If successful, you take full control of the target's body. The original spirit is still present, but is rendered a silent observer in their own body. During this time, the Shaman's body is still vulnerable, and may die. Many a devious Shaman have used this ability to extend their own life, hopping from one body to another across the generations. The controlling spirit can only be Exorcised via a Shamanism; at the Narrator's discretion, acts that run intensely contrary to the host's will (such as killing their own family) may allow the host a second check to regain control of their body. Counter: ''If someone attempts use Possession on another Shaman trained in this ability, the target may spend a point of Breath and roll their ''own ''Shamanism check to trap the attacking spirit. If successful, then it is the attacker's soul that is trapped in the defender's body, instead of vice-versa. Note: Unlike most Shamans, the Devil Machine does not enter a trance state when using this ability, as it is a collection of many spirits sharing a single body. '''Indefatigable Iron Champion!' Armor does not slow you. When wearing armor, the movement and defense penalties are each decreased by one point.